In a twist on PCS Conference 2019, when the NEC flatly opposed motions to include pensions and redundancy rights in the union’s national campaign, this year their argument was that they’re taking a different tack now, because they will include pensions after all.
Despite the digital nature of the Conference, and the assiduous way in which speakers were prevented from interacting with Conference delegates, the guffaws were unmistakeable from across the union when the NEC said they have a strategy and it isn’t the same failed effort as before.
Day 2 of Conference, which was held online on 13th and 14th June, debated a number of important motions, the key of which were on the union’s national campaign. Two years late, the NEC finally acknowledged that a campaign on pay alone is unlikely to unite members.
This is especially true thanks to the NEC endorsement of a multi-year pay offer in HMRC, which involves the sale of terms and conditions in exchange for a moderate pay rise for some. In the last pay ballot, HMRC were the biggest group to get above the 50% anti-strike threshold.
Keeping HMRC involved in a battle on pay is possible, if the issue is posed correctly to members, i.e., that despite this purchase of terms and conditions by the employer, members in Revenue and Customs are still owed more to cancel out the effect of cuts since 2010.
This is an argument we simply do not believe the Left Unity NEC has the capacity to win – but which the Broad Left Network does.
Broad Left Network supporters have argued in favour of broadening the pay campaign from 2018, and were denounced as pursuing an unrealistic shopping list of demands. Without a campaign, any demands at all appear unrealistic, and any hope of a campaign in 2020 was sabotaged not by the pandemic but by a leadership whose first instinct was to write to the Cabinet Office early on during the pandemic to water down our pay demand from 10% to “above inflation”.
The very most the NEC managed in 2020 was their humble petition to Parliament, with 100,000 signatures that secured a debate attended by 17 MPs and then promptly forgotten. Even this wasn’t achieved by the current leadership.
It took Rishi Sunak to announce the pay freeze on the Sunday morning chat shows on 22nd November, and to follow up with the Autumn Statement confirming the pay freeze on 25th November to put the spotlight on pay and to get the petition over 100,000 on 27th November 2020.
The surge in signatures which followed this demonstrated that members were angry, but thanks to the total inanity of the NEC’s pay “campaign”, the union was not in a position to benefit from this or to be able to develop any leverage out of this surge in anger.
As on Day One of Conference, the majority of NEC-proposed motions were passed on Day Two, but delegates across the union have commented on just how lacklustre was the performance from the NEC top brass. Plenty of buzzwords and little of concrete worth was the order of the day.
Summing up A24, the NEC motion on pay, Glasgow R&C delegate and Broad Left Network supporter Bobby Young commented that “this flagship motion does nothing more than instruct the NEC to do its job!”
The NEC’s Motion A24 was carried, as was motion A25, a weak spoiler motion which confirmed a basic campaign demand of a national minimum wage of £12 per hour for all workers, rather than the £15 per hour proposed by Broad Left supporters, with more for London areas.
Other important motions which were debated included a review of the future political strategy, tax justice, the menopause and a key motion calling out the national leadership for the undemocratic nature of the conference, imposed by them despite the rules of the union.
Following a completely lacklustre speech from the NEC speaker it took Broad Left Network speakers including Nick Parker, from BEIS Midlands and Paul Suter from DWP Sheffield HQ to set out exactly what we expect of the leadership who have been remarkably quiet since their all or nothing approach to Labour during the last General Election. Not a whimper has been heard to defend the appalling attacks against Corbyn.
It is clear that we must have a political strategy that can reinforce our aims as a trade union – using our bargaining power to campaign for social and economic change in the interest of working people and their families.
The NEC decision to call for support for all Labour candidates in England and Wales was a serious error of judgment. It ignored the mandate given by ADC and the membership ballot by giving support to right wingers who had undermined Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and who were not sympathetic to PCS policies.
That blanket approval and support to Labour looks even more indefensible with the replacement of Corbyn by Starmer and Labour’s clear move to the right.
The NEC must ensure that the review includes:
However, the starting point must be current policy which gives PCS elected bodies the right to propose support for those candidates who support the union’s position on fighting against austerity, in respect of jobs, services and pay and pensions.
Overwhelmingly carried was a motion mandating the incoming NEC to fight for menopause rights at work. Instructions included developing a model policy for negotiation, ensuring flexible working is used to support menopausal staff, and pushing for training for managers.
This motion will provide much-needed support for menopausal members who shamefully have been ignored and abandoned by the employer.
The Broad Left Network welcomed the explicit inclusion of trans men alongside cisgender women in the moving speech, and further wish to highlight that menopause may be faced by anyone with a uterus including non-binary people.
While the written motion regrettably makes no reference to trans and non-binary workers, the mover clearly demonstrated that the express intention and spirit of the motion is that PCS’s work on menopause must be fully inclusive. The motion was passed on the express mandate that we must fight for menopause rights for every person who experiences it, of any gender. The incoming NEC must ensure that this is the case, and must consult including with PCS Proud and our trans members when developing menopause policy and strategy.
Astonishingly and despite a great deal of manoeuvring, a motion calling out the NEC for imposing conference arrangements on members despite the rules was finally discussed. In a complete re-write of history the NEC and other LU speakers bemoaned the fact that we are in very unusual circumstances and therefore the NEC should do as it likes. Completely missing the point about democracy and accountability as is becoming an increasing feature of the current NEC and their supporters. This was lost, but it was extremely close and should put the national union on notice that we will not tolerate their antics.
The Broad left network will continue to work to restore union democracy, ensure our leaders at all levels are accountable and put pressure to develop the campaigning fighting approach we need to ensure the union is equipped to deal with the huge challenges that are to come. Join us in that struggle.
Democracy is old fashioned, Serwotka tells PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2021
Spirited debate, marked the first day of PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2021, conducted online over 13th and 14th June.
Despite every effort to stitch up the Conference, including not permitting some well-known opponents to speak, and despite nominally getting the NEC motions through the Conference, margins were smaller than ever this year.
The cluster of motions from A9 to A12, which covered the debate on the future of PCS, as well as calls for the election of union Full Time Officers, to increase the accountability of the union to its members, is a good example.
Platitude after platitude, both in the text of motion A9, proposed by the NEC itself, and in the speeches from those , newly elected to the NEC for 2021/22, hand-picked to replace the flood of LU leaverswho got up to bray their allegiance to the Serwotka regime, was all that the NEC had to offer.
Despite bringing out what passes for big guns for this NEC, including the General Secretary himself, the NEC only won motion A9 by a hair, 60,617 for, 57,556 against and 2,156 abstentions.
That tiny majority was only achieved after the General Secretary publicly ruled out the very ideas he had hoped to push through, as part of the sham consultation run over late 2020, when reps were busy fighting to keep members out of the workplace, or safe if in them.
Serwotka promised that there would be no multi-employer branches, and that there would be no digital-by-default approach to union meetings.
What was of political significance during the debate was the moment where Serwotka lined up beside Reamsbottom and the right-wing General Secretaries of the past in arguing that electing full time officers is old fashioned and no one wants to elect the head of IT.
It might surprise a completely out of touch NEC to know that quite a few reps would probably like to elect that post and to make it properly accountable, given the wasteful gimmickry that has been the hallmark of PCS IT and the turn away from using the website for putting out information from negotiators in Groups, to keep members informed.
One of the larger branches in the union changing its vote would have been enough to sink A9, with its surfeit of vague buzzwords and meaningless action points, in favour of the far more definite A10, which sought to put focus where it needs to be: how we’re recruiting, why we’re not recruiting enough and why we’re losing members.
That is precisely the debate the NEC don’t want to have and which they have consistently ducked, because ultimately, it’s on their watch and they’re responsible.
Elections at the Conference did not go the way of Serwotka and his rubber stampers on the NEC.
Alan Dennis, national secretary of the Broad Left Network, and stalwart against the Moderates of CPSA, was elected to the PCS Standing Orders Committee, reflecting general discontent at the way this Conference has been handled.
Other important roles, elected by block vote from the Conference, went to Broad Left Network supporters, who are actually putting forward a strategy to deal with members’ concerns.
Given the way the Conference has been manipulated, and despite the narrow victories for the NEC motions, it’s clear that there is a significant group of reps and activists who sense that for all their self-congratulatory speeches, the emperor is a touch underdressed.
With around a third of branches not in attendance at the Conference, it’s also clear that a significant group of branches are utterly alienated by the way in which the union is being run, the huge centralisation, the closing down of debate, the stage management of important events.
Broad Left Network activists will spend the next year reaching out to branches, explaining the continuing political degeneration of Left Unity, who increasingly have no claim to be taken seriously as a left leadership, and renewing the battle for a fighting, democratic trade union from the ground up, one that engages all branches.
Strong Showing for PCS Broad Left Network ln First National Elections
Elections in the Public and Commercial Services union concluded on Friday 14th May with the election of a commanding majority for the Democracy Alliance on the union’s National Executive Committee for 2021-22. This means that the incumbent NEC, a leadership that is moving decisively to the right, has, with some exceptions, secured its own re-election, although on a very low turnout of 7.5%, with around 13,000 out of 170,000 members voting.
Broad Left Network activists, contesting the elections as an independent socialist group for the first time, secured one place on the 35-strong body, with young member Rachelle McDougall being elected. BLN activist Dave Semple secured sufficient votes to be elected to the NEC but due to a limitation on the maximum number of members from DWP, is knocked off in favour of the next highest candidate from outside DWP or HMRC.
Impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which tens of thousands of Civil Service PCS members have not been in their offices, and where the ability of activists to get out to workplaces to campaign has been drastically curtailed, Broad Left Network activists are far from despondent at securing one place on the National Executive Committee. This post will allow the left to continue to scrutinise and exert pressure on the re-elected leadership.
Broad Left candidate for PCS President Marion Lloyd finished a strong third, with around 2,500 votes – only 4000 votes behind the incumbent. From one of the smallest employer groups in the union, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Marion had sought to capitalise on nearly 10,000 votes in the November 2019 General Secretary election – but the Covid-19 pandemic has decisively cut across the ability of socialists to mobilise the workers who voted in the GS election.
BLN supporters proposed discussions with the Independent Left on an electoral agreement that the results show, could have made inroads into the DA majority. However, the IL’s lack of seriousness has been revealed by their refusal to properly engage with this.
Dirty tricks by the current executive have also played their role. Despite ensuring masks were worn, hand sanitiser was used and social distancing was observed during leafleting, activists from the Broad Left Network and our supporters were publicly condemned by the executive as having undermined the dispute between the union and management in the Swansea Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
As well as being simply untrue, this use of union resources such as the national website to publicly smear one of the factions standing in the election is an example of the worst kind of interference.
Standing on our record: building a left alternative in PCS
Far from undermining the strike in DVLA, Broad Left Network activists – including current NEC members Marion Lloyd, Alan Dennis, Fiona Brittle and Dave Semple – sought to strengthen the strike by ensuring that the most senior leadership in the union had a serious strategy. The Democracy Alliance NEC resorted to scurrilous public attacks to cover for their failure to ballot much earlier rather than their “too little, too late” approach.
This lack of seriousness is repeated in virtually everything the leadership of PCS has done for the last two years. To defend against the danger of a premature return to work during the successive peaks of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, Broad Left Network activists called for the union to prepare a serious industrial response. Democracy Alliance, and its component parts the PCS Democrats and PCS Left Unity, argued for months that the Tories were not seeking a swift return to work, and then that it simply wouldn’t be possible to ballot during the pandemic.
As the big civil service areas, such as the courts and Jobcentres, began to force people back into the office and to insist upon resumption of face-to-face activities, it was belatedly discovered a ballot was vital to protect members safety, but the leadership had already squandered the momentum that could have been built up while the union’s leadership dithered. Even then, in DWP, this was limited to a consultative ballot, with no teeth. But for the intervention of the second wave of Covid-19 in late 2020, Jobcentre staff would have been forced back into the office. This seems to be exactly what is happening now, as the second wave has receded and renewed pressure is exerted by the bosses to drastically scale up face to face work in Jobcentres.
Faced with Tory and senior management indifference to the threat to staff of reopening Jobcentres and dragging in unvaccinated 18-to-24-year-olds, as well as the danger of reinstituting benefit sanctions amidst the continuing pandemic, the answer of the union’s right-wing leadership is exactly the same: a consultative ballot. That this move is months overdue, that it has no force and effect as members cannot take strike action afterwards, that it was launched after the Jobcentres actually reopened just emphasises how ill equipped the current leadership of the union is , even while they talk about defending members.
Coincidentally, the ballot in DWP, the largest group of members in the union, despite being weeks or even months later than would have been prudent, has fallen right in the middle of the election period, enabling the incumbent majority to use the machinery of the union to raise their profiles.
On pay, since 2019 the union’s National Executive Committee have done absolutely nothing that resembles building a meaningful campaign. At Annual Delegate Conference in 2019, they put forward a hugely divisive motion to exclude pensions and redundancy rights from being added to the national pay campaign. These are all issues that require serious national struggle. By that point, three different ballots had failed to pass the 50% participation threshold imposed by the Tories and the result was a pay campaign stuck in the mud while pensions was returning to the minds of many members, as a result of legal campaigns and new information highlighting our overpayment of pension contributions. BLN activists argued we should use this to build momentum. The current leadership continued not to listen.
Meanwhile, with some employer groups getting over the 50% threshold and others not, BLN argued that it might be necessary to hold a disaggregated ballot, to allow some areas to establish their mandate for action and to take action in a coordinated way, whilst the union continued to agitate and build in areas which fell short. This would have enabled the launching of a dispute with a Tory government caught in a particularly weak position.
This was not just opposed but denounced as industrial sabotage. It was also used as a dishonest excuse by some in Left Unity not to support the democratically elected LU candidate for AGS Chris Baugh. This not only effectively split LU but was a portent for the rightward shift of the union’s leadership that we’ve seen during Covid.
When the pandemic began, Broad Left Network activists recognised the extreme dependence of the Tory government upon Civil Servants, and the certainty that once the pandemic passed, austerity would resume. We argued that the pay campaign should be stepped up, linked directly with other issues and that the union should exploit the weakness of the Tories. This could start to undo more than a decade of pay austerity that had blighted the lives of many workers, especially at the lowest grades in the Civil Service, who now get a pay rise only when the minimum wage goes up.
Not only were we denounced as insensitive to anyone who would lose relatives to Covid-19, but the cabal at the top of the union threw out the union’s pay demand of 10% and wrote to the Cabinet Office – without the approval of the NEC – to tug their forelock and ask for an “above inflation” pay rise. The subsequent endorsement of this capitulation to national unity by the NEC, opposed only by BLN members, is an indictment of the Left Unity/Democracy Alliance NEC majority as well as the Independent Left who supported it.
The Tory grandees, sensing their weakness and recognising the weakness of the PCS leadership, offered what they thought would be enough to delay any renewed pay campaign. This succeeded. In the following months the most the NEC managed was a petition and a debate in parliament that was attended by a dozen MPs, not even a majority of MPs in the “PCS Parliamentary Group”. This is held up as a huge success despite the extra pennies that have found their way into members pockets is precisely nothing.
For every single issue the union has faced over the last several years, there is a clear divide between the PCS Broad Left Network, on the one hand, seeking to build a fighting, democratic trade union, and the increasingly rightwards moving PCS Left Unity and their PCS Democrat allies.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the struggle to ensure the accountability of the tops of the union’s full-time structure to the ordinary members of the union. Once upon a time, PCS Left Unity believed in electing all Senior National Officers in the union, and this has repeatedly passed the union’s Annual Delegate Conference – but for the Democracy Alliance this is merely a rhetorical pose, never meant to be acted upon.
The General Secretary himself has indicated clearly why this, despite commanding the support of the union’s membership and activist base, is forever on ice. His view is that the full- time officers answer to him, and he answers to the NEC. This really is a re-hash of the days of Barry Reamsbottom and the total resistance of the old right wing Moderates to the lay reps exercising any hands-on control of the union
Build the Broad Left Network, Build the Union
Broad Left Network activists recognise that, even had we taken control of the National Executive Committee in the 2021 elections, it would have had to be a platform to transform the union. The vibrant, combative, instinctively democratic culture of PCS has been rotting from the top down and stopping that rot is a fight that needs to be taken into every branch and every workplace, so that members see that there can be a union which is prepared to stand up and fight.
Broad Left Network activists have a serious programme for change. We are not interested in being a token opposition to the current leadership of our union which is bereft of any idea about how to build and develop a campaign with a serious chance of winning for members.
We want to win our union back on the basis of a socialist programme, which is the only one that can ensure we have a fighting, democratic PCS and that can secure serious victories against a vicious Tory government and against the private sector bosses who with one hand grab an ever-bigger slice of public services while the other holds the whip they wield over our privatised members.
Over the next year we intend to take this fight into every single branch, to every single workplace in every single department and every single employer where there are workers represented by the union. One of the biggest things that divides us from the re-elected Democracy Alliance leadership is that they look for excuses not to fight blaming an absence of mood amongst members whereas we look to build the confidence of activists to fight and to win industrially and politically with the ideas of socialism.
If, like us, you know that our members want to fight, have the power to win and you want to help unite workers across this union, then join the Broad Left network.
By Marion Lloyd, PCS National President candidate
On Saturday 13th March, young women and men from many backgrounds gathered on Clapham Common in protest at domestic violence, sexual harassment, violence against women more generally and against the indifference and hostility women face when they seek justice and safety.
Sparked by the murder of Sarah Everard, who appears to have been kidnapped when walking home, protests erupted across the UK. For the most part these protests seem to have passed off peacefully, in a socially distanced way, with police showing restraint and good judgment in terms of how they were handled – except in London.
Police were filmed handcuffing demonstrators, shoving women in attendance at the Saturday night vigil from behind and corralling demonstrators together regardless of social distancing. A statement from the activists who attempted to organise the “Reclaim these Streets” vigil suggested those in senior posts with the Metropolitan Police had refused to engage with them, when they were notified of the plans.
“Reclaim these Streets” had organised fifty stewards and had plans to ensure that the protest could happen safely even in the era of Covid-19.
Our right to protest is under attack.
The right to protest is under threat, a matter that should be of a major concern to all PCS members. Under the cover of a pandemic, the government are moving against our democratic rights – including the right to protest. It has already moved against workers taking industrial action. The threat is not just from heavy-handed policing on the ground, it is a systematic threat from the Tory government.
At the same time as protests were emerging following the murder of Sarah Everard, the government has been rushing through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. This passed its second reading on Tuesday 16th March. This gives police sweeping powers to curtail protests and imposes a new criminal penalty for causing “serious annoyance.”
Earlier this month, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Act received royal assent and became law. The CHIS Act, also known as the “Spycops Bill”, authorises agents of the state to commit crimes when undercover. At the same time as this new lawbreaker’s charter was being passed, the Undercover Policing Inquiry is continuing its investigation into the actions of 139 spies from different branches of the police.
These actions included launching sexual and romantic relationships with women involved in anti-racist, trade unionist, socialist and environmentalist causes. It included the fathering and abandonment of children as part of developing their cover. There is also evidence that police spies sought to actively instigate disorder, urging extreme and violent courses of action on those they met as part of their official duties.
A serious, campaigning trade union leadership would have sought to mobilise working-class people to oppose these measures. This is not just based on some abstract notion of civil liberties. It is based on the fact that workers will be the first to suffer from the ability of a Tory government to wield without hindrance the enormous and increasing power of the state.
Already, we have seen police use COVID rules to justify breaking up pickets. Before Christmas, Unite successfully legally challenged the police using these rules to disperse their picket in Leeds. Now their picket in Edinburgh has also been dispersed by police. The workers’ movement had to fight for the right to protest, strike and picket and we have to fight to keep these rights.
Mobilise a Trade Union response
Repeatedly during the pandemic, trade union leaders have shirked their responsibilities to tackle head-on attacks from the Tory government. In PCS, this can be seen from the decision by the NEC under Fran Heathcote, the current national President to throw out the union’s national pay claim for a 10% pay rise, the abandonment of any attempt to build a serious campaign and the decision instead to organise a petition in the hope of getting a debate in parliament. In the event this was attended by a bare handful of MPs.
Elsewhere, we’ve seen the decision by healthcare unions to call for a “slow clap” for the government, when they announced a 1% pay raise for swathes of the NHS, meaning a pay cut. This isn’t just an abdication of leadership; it is an attempt to demoralise workers by persuading them that nothing more can be done, because of the pandemic.
When a small group of nurses in Manchester organised a protest – socially distanced, with personal protective equipment – against the announcement that they’d receive a real-terms pay cut after literally risking their lives throughout the pandemic, they were fined by Greater Manchester Police and people were arrested at the scene. Such heavy-handed tactics are being driven by the government, to crack down on dissent.
While there is enormous pressure – including from worried people who might otherwise be supportive – not to demonstrate publicly, the reality is that the pandemic has not stopped the bosses from pursuing their agenda of job cuts, of wage cuts and of maximising profits at the expense of workers. It has not stopped the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, from seeking cuts to public services even while billions in contracts are being handed out to Tory donors.
Workers and working-class communities must respond, and the kind of political policing we have witnessed during the pandemic must be halted.
There is no end-date for the pandemic. Millions of people – billions around the world – are hoping that as the vaccine is rolled out, there can be a return to some sort of normality, but there are no guarantees, particularly as the current vaccines are less effective at some variants. The consequence of a return to normality is increased transmission – so to argue that we cannot protest during a pandemic is to put protests on hold indefinitely.
Meanwhile women’s refuges are facing cuts, rape crisis centres are facing cuts and many have already closed their books to new referrals because they have been overwhelmed. Trauma counselling services are facing cuts. Street lighting is being cut. The Crown Prosecution Service, which needs enormous investment to be able to reliably handle crimes like sexual assault and rape, is being cut. Protesting this is not optional.
With trained trade union stewards, social distancing, personal protective equipment, antibacterial substances and, crucially, with supportive, community-focused, democratically accountable policing, such protests would not add to the burden everyone faces in trying to get through the pandemic.
Mobilising in our workplaces to fight these cuts is not optional either. We need emergency services, social services and mental health services that are fit for purpose – and the only way to get these is for workers to fight, and for the communities that rely on these services to be mobilised behind the workers at the sharp end.
We need a campaigning leadership in PCS: join the Broad Left Network
The worst from amongst the trade union leaders have openly said that there is no possibility of building any serious campaigns to defend workers’ rights until after the pandemic is over. They hide behind the difficulties imposed by people working from home, they hide behind the restrictions on travel and public gatherings, and the shallow reach of social media – but, even if there wasn’t a pandemic, these leaders would find other excuses to hide behind.
The has been replicated in PCS. For the last year, the union’s National Executive Committee under Fran Heathcote has done absolutely nothing to advance the national campaign on pay. The result has been that bosses in HMRC have seen the opportunity to divide off members of the second biggest group in the union by offering them a small pay rise in exchange for the sale of certain terms and conditions.
Broad Left Network was formed by activists from across the union, in large groups and small groups, both in the public sector and the private sector, who simply could not sit back and allow the massive betrayal of members being perpetrated by the current leadership. Leadership is about building strong union branches, strong employer-based groups, about giving reps and union members the tools, they need to defend themselves and to fight for their rights.
If you want to be a part of this battle, please contact us and get involved in the fight.
BLN View
The HMRC pay offer is the most significant issue to hit the department since it was formed in 2005. The deal itself promises a pay rise which whilst better than normal offers, also strips away a myriad of T&Cs and protections which are massively beneficial to members. The BLN utterly condemns HMRC’s behaviour – members have faced a decade of unnecessary real-terms wage cuts and whilst departmental rhetoric suggests that this offer has been put together to address this, what it really represents is the department trying to capitalise on the desperate financial position that many members find themselves in by launching an assault on members’ T&Cs. The BLN reiterates its calls for fully funded pay rises which wipe out the pay deficit suffered by members over the last decade, without any detriment to T&Cs. We call on all members to unite and reject this attack.
The Deal
The deal itself covers a three year period from 2020/21 to 2022/23 and financially, offers an average 13% pay rise over that period. The pay award is weighted towards the lower paid grades, meaning clerical grades will benefit most – although it can’t be missed that many staff in these grades would have required minimum uplifts to keep them in line with National Minimum Wage legislation over this period, irrespective of the pay award.
Were there no strings attached, the pay offer (whilst it may not meet the National Pay Claim), doubtless represent progress. Additionally, the introduction of home working policies, contractual flexi & reduced time to accrue annual leave will also be welcome to most members. What will be less welcome however is…
Customer Services Group (CSG)
The worst-hit members are clearly those who work in the department’s front-facing CSG. If we ask why (at a time where front-line services are so heavily understaffed to the extent that staff are continually redeployed from one helpline to the next in a desperate bid to meet demand) the CSG wants to stop traditional staff having control over their working patterns and force them onto evening & weekend working, to remove an agreement which stops telephony staff from being harassed, to introduce mandatory unpaid overtime and to remove minimum notice periods for working pattern changes – it is clear that despite PCS’ long-standing demand for HMRC to be fully staffed, the CSG’s approach is to squeeze every last drop out of their hard-pressed staff. There is no question that should these changes go through, they amount to CSG members becoming second-class citizens.
National Campaign
After the deal ends, there is no guarantee that the dept won’t again impose real-terms pay cuts, whilst the T&Cs lost can only be won back through a concerted & sustained industrial campaign. Members have been put in an extremely difficult position whereby they have to consider if they can personally afford to withstand the assault against their T&Cs by rejecting this deal – the BLN is here to support you in any way we can.
The R&C GEC was split down the middle over the question of whether or not to recommend this deal to members, with 14 GEC members voting in favour and 11 voting against. We believe that many GEC members made decisions in good faith, however it is also clear that the earlier GEC decision to hold “in confidence” talks with the employer was a strategic mistake, with important detriments not coming to light until the morning that the GEC was required to make a decision. What is also clear is that this ambiguity has allowed the SV’s GEC Caucus to pursue an agenda of pushing this deal through at any cost – with members now being asked to vote on an offer which at the time of writing, still hasn’t been fully communicated to them. Members must know what they’re being asked to vote on and with the ballot due to commence on 8th February, the full collective agreement needs to be published to members now. PCS should be arranging full members meetings where all information is available and in effect, should be holding a full membership consultation over this issue. Any ballot put to members whereby they are unable to fully scrutinise the deal they’re being offered is nothing more than a sham – and in the long term will be severely damaging to PCS.
Whilst it is appalling that the department would not use the money already present in their coffers to level up T&Cs and pay so their hard-working staff can enjoy a decent living wage, much of the blame for this mess also has to be attributed to the SV leadership within PCS, who have failed miserably to mount a proper National Pay Campaign. Given that in the last two years, the National Pay Campaign has amounted to nothing more than a parliamentary petition & failed industrial action ballot, it is clear that the SV’s national leadership (including their representatives on the R&C GEC) has been keen for this deal to go through as it will allow them climb down from the position they put to ADC 2019 – namely that the only way to progress the national campaign was via an aggregated Civil Service-wide ballot. Specifically, readers will recall that the SV desperately avoided any attempt to have a genuine debate about the best way forward and instead engaged in puerile ad hominem attacks against anyone who advocated a position contrary to theirs, claiming that those who spoke in favour of disaggregation were simply trying to score political points and in doing so were undermining the union.
It should be pointed out that had ADC 2019 voted for disaggregation, the R&C Group (along with a number of other groups which successfully beat the ballot threshold), would have taken industrial action over pay two years ago and in doing so, would have been able to deliver a much better deal for its members than what is currently on offer. However unlike the SV, who are now so scared of conference exercising its sovereignty that its NEC members (which includes members of the R&C GEC) have scrapped the union’s constitution, the BLN fully supports the sovereignty of conference and accepted the outcome of the 2019 pay motions. Even given the limitations within the motions which were carried, the SV’s NEC caucus has still managed to do a spectacularly bad job of leading the union’s pay campaign. The SV recognises this and has calculated that it’s best way out of the situation is to use the HMRC pay deal to push for a series of departmental deals which offset pay versus T&Cs – and claim this as a resounding victory. We have already seen a great deal of opposition to this deal from many members in HMRC (particularly from those members on trad contracts) and whilst it is too early to say which way the ballot will go, it is clear that PCS stands to lose a hell of a lot of long-serving members – we cannot let this be repeated in group after group.
BLN has consistently argued for a national pay campaign that actually listens to what members and grass roots activists want, building from the ground up rather than dictating to them from an office in Clapham. The SV has shown time and again that they are unfit to lead this union and their current position on how to take the national pay campaign forward is actively dangerous. Come the NEC elections, it is abundantly clear that the leadership needs to be replaced. The BLN urges R&C members to oppose this divisive pay offer and urges all PCS members to support BLN candidates in the forthcoming NEC elections.
Thousands of people throughout the DVLA catchment area will have been
concerned at recent media reports of 535 COVID cases at the Agency. DVLA
has contested the reported figures, but then were forced to admit the figures
were right and apologise at the Transport Select Committee. They stated the
figure was from the whole period of the pandemic, but this masks that fact that
the vast bulk of the covid-19 cases have happened more recently in the
second wave. Also it remains the case that still making staff attend work in
person at a massive Government complex like this poses a risk at a time
when the infection rate is so high.
While many are working from home, most of the operational staff in the lower
grades are having to attend work because management say outdated IT
systems cannot be adapted for homeworking. Attending work involves using
buses in many cases.
As in any large office building, everyone knows how easily even ordinary
viruses like the cold can spread, but COVID puts a new and deadly slant on
an old problem. There is even more risk now with the new variants of Covid-
19 which spread even faster and the lack of proper ventilation in workplaces.
Every time staff speak this can help spread airborne particles of Covid-19
which can fill up indoor spaces and go further than 2 metres if fresh air is not
brought into the area. Call centre work poses are real risk of spreading covid-
19 as workers are speaking all day for their jobs.
The overriding ethos of DVLA is to maintain output and productivity and their
attitude towards everything else including health and safety is coloured by
this. Sick absence is punished in the same way as misconduct, with formal
warnings and dismissal.
The safety of workers cannot be entrusted to DVLA or any other Government
Department or Agency. PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka says he has
intervened with Ministers regarding DVLA, but more is needed. PCS must
give a lead now and take collective action to get workers out of an unsafe
environment.
Broad Left Network
The Broad Left Network is the Socialist Group inside PCS and our immediate
concerns are the employment and workplace issues that face members,
particularly health and safety at this time.
During this pandemic, we say:
all staff should work from home unless they are key workers and their
work can only be delivered from the workplace. The definition of a key
worker must be agreed with the union, not just imposed by
management.
Special leave with pay for all those who cannot work from home and
are not key workers.
All sick leave related to Covid-19 to be written off including conditions
related to long-covid
Additional compensation for extra expenses incurred through working
at home eg fuel bills.
The current Left Unity led National Executive Committee has failed to
organise members to respond collectively to achieve a national collective
agreement from the employer. Rather they have left branches like DVLA and
individual members to manage on their own. Their advice to members at the
outset of the pandemic reads “This Briefing provides general information
about statutory rights which are available to all employees. We are not
advising you to do or refrain from doing anything.” In other words, you are on
your own. This is not good enough!
From the start of the outbreak, members meetings should have been
called to make it clear that they have a legal right to refuse to work in an
unsafe environment.
Workers have the right not to go into a work area where they face serious and
imminent danger and should immediately proceed to a place of safety. The
covid-19 outbreak in the DVLA workplaces has clearly shown how dangerous
it is for staff to remain travelling to and working in these buildings with the
serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence
and the spread of this severe acute respiratory syndrome Covid-19. Union
safety reps should assist individuals in expressing and reporting fears about
the serious and imminent danger they face and why they need to invoke their
rights to proceed to a place of safety and stay at home. There is protection
and legal rights under both Section 8 of The Management of Health and
Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and Section 44 of the Employment Rights
Act 1996.The union must throw its full weight behind members rights to be
safe, tackle DVLA management to negotiate what needs to be done to protect
the whole workforce from the risk of contracting Covid-19 and take a lead in
organising members to act collectively if management fail to respond.
Working together and with a lead from the top of PCS we can keep
members and the wider community safe during this pandemic.
ACTION NOT WORDS
Nominate Marion Lloyd for PCS National President
Nominate a fighting, democratic leadership
The Broad Left Network believes that the union needs to change if we are to mount an effective challenge to the attacks from the employer. We say:
Please nominate the following candidates…
President: Marion Lloyd (BEIS)
Vice Presidents: Fiona Brittle (ScotGov), Sarah Brown (Met Police), Dave Semple (DWP)
NEC: Dave Barlett (MoJ), Rebecca Borland (Home Office), Fiona Brittle (ScotGov), Alex Brown (Health), Sarah Brown (Met Police), Kevin Denman (Met Police), Alan Dennis (DSG), Gill Foxton (DfE), Sue Francis (BEIS), Paul Guinnane (DfE), Rachel Heemskerk (DWP), Tom Lowry (DWP), Marion Lloyd (BEIS), Nick Parker (BEIS), Dave Rees (DWP), Rob Ritchie (Met Police), Dave Semple (DWP), Paul Suter (DWP), Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale (DWP), Katrine Williams (DWP), Craig Worswick (DWP), Colin Young (DfE)
“This has been a year when we’ve had to fight for our lives and livelihoods. Regrettably, on too many occasions our leadership has failed us. If I am elected as President, I promise you the NEC will never be a party to parking and watering down our full pay claim as they did in 2020 giving the employer confidence and letting down members. The work that reps and members have taken to protect our safety is inspirational. It is this, that gives me the confidence that under a new leadership, with a fresh approach, PCS can regain its fighting culture and win for members.” Marion Lloyd.
What is the Broad Left Network?
We have supporters across all groups including the Commercial Sector and from every region and nation in the UK. We are socialists united by one purpose: reclaiming the union for members to build a serious campaign that reverses the erosion of union power and wins for members.
Re-building the Broad Left in PCS in 2021:
Collective struggle and socialist ideas are needed
As we write, Scotland and England have both returned to the national lockdown conditions that were first implemented in April 2020 and Wales has extended their lockdown. A lot of noise is being made about the new variant of Covid-19 and about the massive spike in hospital admissions justifying the new lockdown, but both had been a feature of the situation for several weeks while the government dithered. What changed?
400,000 workers in England and Wales took part in a national meeting on Zoom on January 3rd. Called by the National Education Union (NEU), the meeting advised teachers across the UK on how to collectively and simultaneously exercise their right not to be put in serious and imminent danger by their employer. The NEU even provided a form letter for teachers to email in, all at the same time.
Faced with the prospect of a mass struggle by teachers over safety, the UK government finally called a national lockdown in England. In Scotland, where pressure amongst teachers has been gradually mounting, with individual EIS branches submitting notices of trade disputes to their corresponding local authorities, the Scottish Government acted scant hours ahead of the decision by the UK government covering England. Under similar pressure, the Welsh government also u-turned, delaying the re-opening of schools.
SAGE and other government bodies have been recording the huge spike in cases for some time. We knew about the variant before Christmas. What finally forced the governments to act was collective struggle by workers. In the case of the NEU it was collective struggle under the cover provided by Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which grants workers the right to refuse to put themselves in serious and imminent danger.
In PCS, this has been the argument and position of the Broad Left Network since the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis. Supporters on the NEC have repeatedly put forward the view that Section 44 allows us the cover to struggle collectively – not just workplace by workplace, as our supporters across the union have been doing, but across entire areas of work, across departments and private sector contractors and across the civil service.
The current NEC majority, have not once but repeatedly tried to smack down this view. Every possible argument has been used, from denouncing us all as “posturing” to citing legal advice (which is never shared) that Section 44 can’t be used in this way. As the NEU have shown, there is no need to wait for a test case to prove the value of S.44 when workers are willing to fight, and teachers were clearly ready to fight.
The PCS NEC should build on this success with revised advice to Branches and Groups, backed up by national negotiations with the Cabinet Office and other employers. This is particularly important for the members in areas where there has been substantial attendance at workplaces throughout the pandemic. The government have walked across line after line drawn by the union’s National Executive and it’s “five tests” to ensure member safety. The government have repeatedly refused to come to agreements with the union. The NEC must learn from the successful NEU action and act now.
Unfolding economic and social catastrophe: they say cut back, we say fight back
Public services, including housing and the NHS, have faced constant attacks through austerity since the crisis of 2007-8. While the UK government are handing out contracts to the private sector, resulting in a profits bonanza for the bosses, nowhere close to enough is being done to dramatically improve NHS staffing levels, to fill the tens of thousands of jobs that remain unfilled even by the government’s own estimates. The most obvious lever for this is a serious pay rise, to correct for years of underinvestment.
Local authorities have endured punishing cuts to the block grant they are paid either by Westminster or the devolved nations, yet even while they oversee areas crucial to a comprehensive Covid-19 response, such as homelessness, adult social care and social housing, they are being faced with further cuts. Some councils had sought to make investments in airports and property, to reduce the impact of cuts, but of course they have now been hit too. Thousands of jobs are threatened, and years of pay cuts loom.
Civil servants and their privatised brothers and sisters face exactly the same thing. Job cuts have already been announced in areas as diverse as the British Council and the Tate London. Swingeing pay cuts are being imposed on workers in the Commonwealth and War Graves Commission. Nationally, the Chancellor has already announced a general 1-year pay freeze, and everything we know so far suggests this is going to last for three years, one year longer than George Osborne’s 2-year freeze of 2010-12. Austerity is back with a vengeance.
While some departments, notably the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC, have added thousands of jobs to cover the additional work involved in maintaining a benefit system that’s now supporting double the previous number of workers, there’s already a clear indication that this is temporary. Some staff have been brought in as agency staff, others as fixed term contracts. The writing is already on the wall, unless there is a concerted battle to prevent the further running down of, and privatisation of, chunks of public services.
There is a clear, objective basis for united industrial action on the question of pay, jobs and services – and, lest we forget, public sector pensions are still a burning issue. No doubt the Tories, the media and the right-wing leaders of the labour movement will chastise us for daring to demand pay rises, full restoration of our pension rights and job security at a time when private sector workers are being hammered by the capitalists, who are growing fat off billions in tax cuts in the last ten years and further billions in private sector contracts handed out with zero accountability by the Johnson government.
Regardless, a struggle must be built – and we must work to connect it to the same battles that are being fought in the private sector. It takes bosses the first few days of a year to earn as much as their employees earn in a whole year. Low pay, job insecurity and poor treatment of workers are endemic problems across the private sector. It is possible to get the other trade unions lined up behind us, however.
By organising a resolute response and mobilising teachers decisively, the NEU was able to force the hand of the other unions, both for teachers and for support staff. Even GMB, although still hiding behind legal advice that use of S.44 can’t be collective, was forced to give advice to members that collectivised their struggle in all but name. This is one model of how united struggle can be built.
The response of the NEC majority has been to launch the PCS petition. This was simply decreed by the NEC, in place of any kind of serious campaign on pay. The absence of any campaign was foreshadowed by the lead negotiators on behalf of the union throwing the pay demands agreed by Conference into the trash even before they met with Ministers. The NEC also issued a public declaration that the union couldn’t run a ballot during Covid-19. Rather than the 10% rise, General Secretary Mark Serwotka dangled the prospect of the union agreeing to “an above inflation pay rise” and, seeing a way to neutralise such a half-hearted trade union leader, this is exactly what the Tories offered. The 2020 pay rise was marginally above the Government’s preferred measure of inflation.
So, with a decision by the government that was seen by many members as at least giving them something, it isn’t much of a surprise that the union’s activists were facing a totally different direction when the NEC ordered the pay petition launched. It wasn’t until resource-intensive phone-banking and texting was employed that the number of signatures finally crossed 100,000, assisted at the last minute by the Tory decision to announce a year long pay freeze across swathes of the public sector.
The result? For an hour and twenty-one minutes, a grand total of 17 MPs debated civil service and keyworker pay. Two of the MPs were already amongst PCS’ strongest supporters in Parliament. This is eloquent testimony to the impact of the union’s pay campaign: even the trade unions of a century ago, whose tactics have been described as “humble petition”, were able to make a much larger impact than the PCS NEC.
For a member-led, fighting, democratic union with socialist policies
The PCS NEC majority cancelled the union’s elections in 2020, despite the fact that these postal ballots could be carried out safely. Other unions which also initially suspended their own elections have now proceeded to hold these elections.
The NEC have now removed the right of branches to determine the content and running order of the union’s Annual Delegate Conference. The new restrictions imposed by the NEC will allow them to manipulate the agenda. Even if they aren’t yet confident enough to try throwing out motions on topics like trans rights and the union’s political strategy, they will feel tempted to bury them lower down the agenda. Meanwhile, they will be able to control debate on the union’s national campaigns on pay and other matters.
Their defence, already heard on social media, is that it is not the NEC that will make these decisions but the National Standing Orders Committee. However the NEC have decided to restrict motions to one per branch in each of 5 sections determined by the NEC. And there seems to be no provision for reference back. Both these restrictions should be removed. Branches should be permitted to submit motions as normal, the SOC should construct the agenda, and Conference should have the usual reference back procedures. There should be no requirement to ask to speak in advance. This simply enables the President to hide from delegates who she is not calling in to speak. If delegates are required to state their name, gender, Group and Branch on their profile, it is actually easier at an online event to get a good balance of speakers.
PCS activists also need to prepare to resist proposals to reduce the number of Full Time Officers at work supporting our members and the proposals to restructure branches and the union’s employer groups, which form the backbone of how negotiations are handled and how members hold their elected negotiators to account. The PCS Revenue and Customs Group have already told the NEC that they oppose breaking up their branches into multi-employer branches, and that they want to maintain the current structure of their branches and their Group. The NEC consultation has ended, but BLN activists should be alerting other active members to this threat, and gearing up to oppose any motions at national conference that try to implement this.
There is much to do in 2021 and this is what will be debated by the Broad Left Network Conference that meets on 16th January this year. We call on you to join us.
BLN report of the NEC of 10.12.20
The NEC met on 10th December. Key issues such as Covid-19, the union’s national campaign, the national union’s finances and arrangements for Conference 2021 were considered.
Covid-19 and workplace testing
The report from the General Secretary had no recommendations attached to it, but it laid out the union’s negotiating position in terms of testing in the workplace. BLN supporters on the NEC put forward a detailed motion on workplace testing which asked the negotiators to link discussions on workplace testing back to the previously sought collective agreement covering the response of Civil Service departments and related areas to the pandemic, including protecting people’s right to work from home.
Testing using the proposed lateral flow tests is deemed by medical professionals to only 50% accurate. With a high degree of training this can rise to 85% but the government has made clear it’s intention is to plan for workplace testing where individuals carry out their own test, overseen by other civil servants in their workplace who are trained by watching a video. Medical professionals also stress that the tests need to be repeated, to be effective in keeping a workplace secure from Covid-19, and this is not part of the government plans.
A staggering amount of money could very quickly be spent on this workplace testing, and similar on the mass testing being delivered in towns – an amount equivalent to 70% of the NHS budget has been mooted, with a staggering amount being siphoned off by private companies producing the tests. So making sure that if there is a testing regime, it’s about keeping people safe and not about private sector profiteering is essential. The motion put forward by BLN supporters pressed this point; this would have ramifications, should the government concede implementation of testing overseen by medics, instead of the current Do-It-Yourself plan. Despite all of this, the NEC majority voted against our motion.
Negotiators have indicated that they are pressing for concrete guarantees for the Cabinet Office that any staff on privatised government contracts should be mandatorily paid should they test positive for Covid-19. There have been examples where companies have refused to pay staff when they have to self-isolate, despite the Cabinet Office offering contractual relief, i.e. a subsidy that would cover the wages for those staff sent home. Negotiators are seeking a clear commitment from these private companies. In DWP for example, where testing may be trialled, this means G4S and Mitie.
BLN supporters on the NEC obviously agree with this, but our concern is that testing is not going to be effective – it has been trialled in parts of DWP, such as Blackpool, with little to no result on the model the government is pursuing. The best way to keep civil servants and contract staff safe remains to keep them at home where possible, to ensure social distancing, to allow for flexible working to ensure that people don’t have to travel during rush hour and for the implementation of full union and Health and Safety oversight of all working arrangements.
No decision has been taken on whether or not to endorse workplace testing and negotiations continue. This will happen in January.
National campaign
As this NEC meeting occurred just weeks after the union’s pay petition passing the 100,000 mark, NEC members were treated to the unedifying spectacle of much chest thumping about how wonderful this was, how much work it had entailed, how much it had helped the union build the pay campaign and so on. The proposal from the leadership was to have a Facebook event to advertise the parliamentary debate triggered by the passing of 100,000 signatures.
The General Secretary also proposed launching a judicial challenge to the proposed changes to the Civil Service Compensation scheme and to name now the three pay dates in January, February and March as payday protests. All other decisions were relegated to January, at which point the senior officers of the NEC pledged to come back with a detailed strategy on building the pay campaign. BLN supporters pointed out that we’ve been asking for this for months. A nettled Serwotka replied by saying he wasn’t proposing this because BLN had asked for it but because HMRC pay discussions had reached a certain stage.
BLN supporters sought to push the NEC leadership in terms of how we engage with other trade unions. The General Secretary reported back discussions at the Public Sector Liaison Group and the TUC General Council that poured ice cold water on the notion of any positive response from the other trade unions, in his view. The most that seemed to be on offer was a “mass lobby” of Parliament near the time of the government’s Spring Financial Statement. It’s clear that a small turnout as this will be used as justification by other unions to waver on any commitment to a serious pay campaign.
Our view was that simply attending PSLG or the TUC General Council was not sufficient. Trades councils have already been organising pay demonstrations, including at the weekend just past. We should issue guidance to branches to support engaging with trades councils and for branches affiliated to trades councils to discuss and propose joint working at a local level on pay. At a national level, before we simply name days of protest, we should at least write to individual unions and the TUC to seek joint protests – this may mean different dates to our own members’ pay days.
Rather than putting all of the decisions off until January, BLN supporters put forth a call to test out the other trade unions on a joint consultative ballot, with the purpose of focusing campaign activity in the early part of the year around this. This could be supplemented with a Special Delegate Conference on pay, to mobilise branches and seek branch approval of any NEC programme. We continue to oppose the insistence on a single-issue pay campaign that doesn’t take in any other issue and where the method of balloting is rigid and does not take into account the best methods of beating the Tory anti-strike ballot threshold.
NEC takes aim at the sovereignty of Annual Delegate Conference
Following a proposal from the General Secretary, the NEC has agreed to overturn the existing standing orders of Annual Delegate Conference. The NEC have decided that, given the likelihood of a virtual Conference in 2021, there will be four sessions at this Conference, with the topics of three of these being decided by the NEC.
Branches will only be allowed to submit four motions – three on the topics pre-determined by the NEC and one on any other item. The topics that come up in the fourth section, in which branches can submit one motion, will be decided by the National Standing Orders Committee, with no right for branches to appeal to the Conference itself against the decision of NSOC.
Broad Left Network supporters believe it would be perfectly possible to run a Conference where branches can submit as many motions as they like, as normal, with sections and the running order of motions within sections being decided by NSOC as usual, but with branches retaining the right to appeal to Conference if they disagree with the decision.
Ordinarily, when the deadline for motions passes, the National Standing Orders Committee meets to consider what has been sent in by branches, to allocate these to categories, to decide what order those categories should be heard and to decide what order motions should be heard within categories. They also decide if certain motions shouldn’t be heard or if passing one motion causes another motion later on the agenda to fail.
This part of the process would be truncated. The NEC would decide, rather than NSOC or the weight and number of branch motions submitted, what the agenda is for three-quarters of the Conference.
Again, ordinarily, branches can submit “reference backs” disagreeing with any decision of the National Standing Orders Committee. The NSOC hears these and makes a decision, but the final agenda is then put to the very first session of Annual Delegate Conference. Branches which still do not agree with the decision of NSOC have the right to speak against Conference adopting the proposed running order and in favour of specific changes to the agenda.
This part of the process will be eliminated. There will be no ability for Conference to determine its own agenda; Standing Orders will not be subject to amendments, they will be imposed.
BLN supporters flatly opposed this; we supported some Independent Left amendments which marginally improved the position outlined in Serwotka’s paper, but we also put up our own motion completely reversing Serwotka’s approach. The General Secretary has hung his hat on the idea that there will be a much higher turnout at this Conference than previous conferences, and there will be a more diverse group of speakers – on that basis he has called his proposals the basis for a Conference which is even more democratic than the one held annually in Brighton.
We fundamentally disagree. None of the work around building turnout needs to be sacrificed if our approach was adopted. Branches could still submit applications to speak on motions in advance, the National President could still have these to hand well in advance, and reference backs with a designated speaker could also be submitted well in advance.
If Conference chose to move a specific item up the agenda, or admitted it for debate against the recommendation of the National Standing Orders Committee, then with this preparation it would be readily apparent to the National President, as Chair of the Conference, and would be clear to all those listening what order motions would be heard in – and this could even be updated on the PCS website in real time to ensure every delegate was up to date. Mechanisms for voting are already going to be in place for any Delegate Conference held remotely anyway, so Conference could have its say.
Other issues
BLN supporters have asked some questions about the recent slew of promotions amongst PCS full time staff despite the leadership constantly banging the drum about saving money. We have also raised questions about where we are on the many legal cases that the union was supposed to be launching because of the unlawful removal of members’ contractual rights to pay their union subs by direct debit. The case against DWP resulted in a £3 million pay out to the union. The case relating to the Home Office has gone to the High Court but no further information was available.
Some steps were taken by the NEC to implement conference policy in respect of creating a Private Sector Association, expanding the current Commercial Sector Association to include employers beyond the main eight private sector companies where we’ve previously had members, and on creating a Public Sector group (PSg) conference. A motion proposed by BLN supporters on the Spycops scandal was guillotined from the agenda due to time, although promises were made that it will be brought back in January.
PCS Broad Left Network 